20 Taps! New Menu Items! Cocktails! A New Beer! Lots to celebrate at OTTO’s Spring Smörgåsbord!

It may not look much like Spring out there, but everything’s new at OTTO East End (225 Congress Street). The second-oldest OTTO location, located at the foot of Munjoy Hill, has just received a Spring refresh!

Join us on Thursday, March 15 from 5-8pm for our Spring Smörgåsbord, showcasing a bevy of exclusive new additions to the East End OTTO.

During the event, 50% of all sales of new menu items will be donated to our friends, the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization.

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20 Taps!
We’ve vastly expanded our tap lines, and will be featuring the very best in regional craft beer!

Pizza Night IPA
We’ll be launching Pizza Night IPA, our brand new beer collaboration with Banded Horn Brewing Co. made with Simcoe, Mosaic, Azacca and Summit hops. An herbal, grassy, piney & tropical-flavored IPA made just for OTTO.

Signature Cocktails
Moscow Mule
Gin Basil Collins
Manhattan
Rosemary Margarita
OTTO Palmer

New Bar Menu!
A slew of delicious new things that we like to call ‘Not Pizza:’
Sliders (Meatball, Falafel, or Pulled Pork)
Hand-Cut Fries w/House-Made Sauces (Buffalo-Dusted or Loaded)
Baked Mac ‘n’ Cheese
Everything Knots

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Detroit Style Pizza
We’ve held several pop-ups in Maine and Massachusetts to perfect our take on Detroit-Style pie, and we’re thrilled to be serving it full-time at OTTO East End. Expect a delicious, square-shaped, deeper dish pie with a thick, crispy crust.

Come on down! We look forward to seeing you!a5b74674-ed6b-4826-b9a1-a04138fa8007

OTTO to OTTO: 130 Mile Ride to Raise Dough

glv_ride_blogOn Saturday, September 24, the OTTO-sponsored bicycle racing team Green Line Velo will cycle from OTTO’s Comm Ave location in Boston to OTTO’s Munjoy Hill location in Portland to raise money, and awareness, for two vital New England bicycle organizations, The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition and the Bicycle Coalition of Maine.

In one day.  That’s over 130 miles.  They’re gonna need your help, and a lot of pizza, to power through.

Green Line Velo and OTTO have been working together for a few years now (OTTO has been the final stop on GLV’s Wednesday Night Group Rides for years). The relationship grew out of proximity, shared values, and, well, pizza, bikes, and beer.

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Wednesday Night Group Ride in Brookline

When OTTO became an official sponsor of the team in 2016, the idea of a Boston to Portland ride was sparked.  With a shared vision of improving our communities, the decision was made to raise funds and awareness for MassBike and Bicycle Coalition of Maine, with funds going towards cycling safety, infrastructure initiatives, and the promotion of cycling for fitness, fun, and transportation.

Final Wednesday Night Group Ride & Fundraiser
To kick off the event, we will be holding a fundraiser at our 888 Commonwealth Avenue location in Boston after the final Wednesday Night Group Ride on Wednesday, September 14. A portion of every sale between between 6pm-10pm will be donated to MassBike and Bicycle Coalition of Maine.  Please feel free to come out and celebrate another great season, and wish the team best of luck in their 130-mile journey.

Show Some Love — DONATE!
Anyone willing to make a donation to support cycling initiatives in Maine and Massachusetts can do so at the ride’s fundraising page.

Arrival Party, Giveaways, Food and Drink Specials
On Saturday, September 24, we will be holding an arrival party at our 225 Congress Street location on Munjoy Hill in Portland from 4-7pm.  There will be some great food and drink specials, giveaways, and other goodness.

As an added bonus for our cycling enthusiasts, our usual 10% offer to all Bicycle Benefits members will be extended to Buy One – Get One on all slices during the party. You can learn more about how the program works here. If you haven’t already signed up, the time is now!

Come out, meet the team, and support the cycling community!

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Green Line Velo is a bicycle racing team based in Boston dedicated to competing at a high level and developing both individual riders and the sport in general.  By focusing first on a high level of camaraderie, they strive to create a team experience that is similar to collegiate cycling and which creates a cohesive group both on the road in races, as well as on training rides.

GLV are dedicated to the love of the bike, the spirit of competition and, more importantly, to the pursuit of fun and enjoyment for all.  They believe that the bicycle provides the means for their members to enact social good. Through a combination of competition and community outreach, they seek to promote that social good both on and off the bike.


The Bicycle Coalition of Maine works to make Maine a better place to bicycle. Founded by a small group of cyclists in 1992, the Bicycle Coalition has grown into one of the most effective bike advocacy groups in the country. 


The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike) promotes a bicycle-friendly environment and encourages bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation.


The 1st OTTO Oscars! Submit your OTTO-themed Movie Poster and Win $100 Worth of Pizza Delivered to your Door on Oscar Night

It’s that time of year again – Oscar season! In honor of the 88th Academy Awards, we inviteTheShining you to post your own versions of OTTO-themed movie posters on our Facebook timeline and WIN!

Submit your movie poster by Thursday, February 25th. On Friday, February 26th we will choose the three best entries and award the following prizes:

1st place: A pizza party of $100 worth of pizza delivered to your home on Oscar Night* OR a $100 gift card & an OTTO T-shirt
2nd place: $50 OTTO gift card & an OTTO T-shirt
3rd place: $25 OTTO gift card & an OTTO T-shirt

A couple of rules to follow:

  1. You must incorporate one or both of the following: A photo of OTTO pizza AND/ORSpottolight the word ‘OTTO’ (Otto’s or Otto’s Pizza will not be accepted)
  2. Please use an existing film poster for your entry (see the Facebook gallery for examples)

Entries may be posted on our Facebook timeline or emailed to contactus@ottoportland.com. Winners will be contacted via Facebook or email on 2/26.

OTTO reserves the right to remove and/or disqualify entries that are not suitable for all ages, or which are otherwise not aligned with OTTO’s good taste.

We will add the very best entries to our ‘OTTO Oscars’ Facebook gallery, and elsewhere.

Get to it and good luck!

*The address must be within delivery range of one our locations in Maine or Massachusetts to qualify for an Oscar Night delivery

 

Who is Elliott Brood? And Why Should You Care?

Elliott Brood is on tour and playing a bunch of shows in the northeast before heading over to Europe.

Music is an important ingredient at OTTO Pizza – we listen to it all the time. We listen to music while we’re setting up shop in the morning; it’s playing during the day when we’re taking care of our customers, and we crank it up at night while we’re cleaning up the shop to do it all over again the next day.

Some of the folks who work at OTTO Pizza are musicians themselves, and there are a ton of local bands that we love as well, but every once in a while, a band comes along that really grabs us and maybe we go a little crazy.

Elliott Brood is such a band. These guys are amazing. But don’t take our word for it. Check ’em out for yourself.

And apparently, Elliott Brood is on tour right now, which is great. Anybody else really like Elliott Brood? Why don’t you drop us a line at ottopizza668@gmail.com?

OTTO TO GO: Pizza Delivery Available in the Portland Area

Why order delivery from the big chains, when OTTO Pizza will come to you?OTTO Pizza delivers!

Now, of course we love to see you. Your smiling face brightens our day. But we also know there are times when it’s hard to get out of the house, or you just don’t feel like getting out of your pajamas.

If you live in the Portland area, you can order any of our deliciously different pizzas by phone or fax. Whether you’re in the East End, the West End, downtown, the Arts District, Old Port, or Munjoy Hill, OTTO will ensure your pizza is delivered hot and fresh from our oven.

Delivery times may vary, depending on volume, but you can expect to have our custom-topped gourmet pies within 30-45 minutes. Some of the big chains can’t even do that.

It’s OTTO-Matic. For the people.

WooHoo! It’s National Cheese Pizza Day!

OTTO Pizza owners Anthony Allen and Mike Keon show the hosts at Fox’s “Good Morning Maine” how they make their award-winning cheese pizza. Sept. 5 is National Cheese Pizza Day. To see the full video of the spot, click on the link in the post.

Yep, that’s right! Today, Sept. 5, 2012, is National Cheese Pizza Day.

How it became National Cheese Pizza Day in America is something of a debate. There’s no Presidential or Congressional proclamation declaring National Cheese Pizza Day, if the historians are to be believed, but it seems to have evolved by virtue of widespread common belief. If everyone believes Sept. 5 is National Cheese Pizza Day, then ipso facto, Sept. 5 is National Cheese Pizza Day.

So in honor of National Cheese Pizza Day, we put together a few fun facts:

  • Americans eat 350 slices of pizza per second.
  • The average American eats 23 pounds of pizza each year.
  • 93 percent of Americans eat at least one slice of pizza each month.

In celebration of National Cheese Pizza Day, OTTO Pizza owners Mike Keon and Anthony Allen paid a visit to Good Day Maine, the Fox Network morning show in Portland, Maine, to show everyone exactly how OTTO Pizza makes a cheese pizza, which serves as the foundation for many of the OTTO Pizza flavor combinations.

Watch Mike and Anthony work their magic.

And you can bet we’ll be checking in with one of our favorite bloggers later today to see how she marks the special occasion.

OTTO Pizza to be Featured on Boston’s Wicked Popular Phantom Gourmet Show

Phantom Gourmet segment producer Deb Hurley and videographer Greg Dole shot a piece recently at OTTO Pizza’s Coolidge Corner shop in Brookline, Mass.

If you live in the Boston area, you are undoubtedly familiar with an enormously popular television show called the Phantom Gourmet. If you don’t live in the Boston area, you might want to take a look at it anyway because the Phantom Gourmet consistently highlights the best in Food & Fun in Boston and beyond … including forays into Vacationland to shine their spotlight on some of Maine’s best offerings.

And yesterday, the Phantom Gourmet crew brought their cameras to our OTTO PIzza Coolidge Corner shop to get the story from that angle and show their viewers exactly how the magic happens.

Segment producer Deb Hurley and videographer Greg Dole spent four or five hours at OTTO Pizza, interviewing owners Anthony Allen and Mike Keon, getting a behind-the-scenes take on our specialty pies and shooting footage that will give their viewers a first-hand look at what inspires such fanatical loyalty among our OTTO Pizza customers.

Of course, the inimitable Masher — featuring mashed Maine potatoes, bacon and scallions — was on the menu, but so were several other OTTO Pizza specialties, including the Pulled Pork & Mango, the Butternut Squash, Ricotta and Cranberry (a very popular item with our vegetarian friends) and the often imitated but never duplicated Margherita, which features fresh Roma tomatoes and pungent basil, painstakingly prepared by OTTO Pizza’s kitchen artisans in a delicate chiffonade.

The Phantom Gourmet airs in the Boston media market on myTV38 on Saturday and Sunday 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m., respectively. The show is also a feature on the WBZ4 Evening News. The Phantom Gourmet airs on CW28 in Providence Saturday at 10 a.m. and WPME-TV, the CW, in Maine, on Sundays at 11a.m.

Phantom Gourmet is live on 96.9FM Boston Talks Saturday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The OTTO Pizza segment is expected to air sometime in mid-August.

Win An OTTO Pizza Hat Just Like the Ones Worn by the Folks Behind the Counter!

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Here’s your chance to win an official OTTO Pizza hat, just like the ones worn by the folks who work there!

If you’ve been to OTTO Pizza, or had OTTO Pizza delivered to you, you’ve probably seen them — those sylish, white hats that the kitchen and delivery staff wear. Here’s your chance to get one for yourself!

To snag one, all you’ve got to do is visit our Facebook page, click on the “OTTO Hat Contest” link and fill  out the form by 11:59 p.m., Sunday, July 1, 2012. We’ll select a winner at random from among the entries on Monday, July 2, and the lucky entrant should be sporting that new cap by the weekend!

These are great hats, featuring the OTTO Pizza logo embroidered in black thread on the front of a 100-percent cotton, pure white cap, and until now the only way to get one has been to work at OTTO Pizza — which is a possibility. We’re always looking for good help.

But if you’ve got a job, or are otherwise occupied in that respect, this is your best bet to get an OTTO Pizza hat. We’ve got no plans to offer them for sale. So get on over to our Facebook page and enter! You can’t win if ya don’t play.

OTTO Pizza’s Deering Little League Girls Softball Team Closes Out Season

OTTO Pizza coach Brian Carleton serves up some pizza to the members of the Deering Little League OTTO Pizza Girls AA Softball Team as they celebrate the close of their successful season with some pizza at OTTO Pizza’s Munjoy Hill location last night.

This year, OTTO Pizza sponsored a girls softball team in the AA Division of Portland’s Deering Little League. The girls, all seven and eight years old, wrapped up their season last night with a game at the Hall School field, whereupon the entire team adjourned to OTTO Pizza’s East End location on Munjoy Hill for a celebratory pizza party.

In addition to the pizzas, the girls enjoyed a special cake commemorating their season and tore into two packs of Topps 2012 baseball cards, supplied by Assistant Coach Danny Terroni.

It was a great year, and the best part of it was watching all of the girls improve as players as the season progressed. It was a real treat to watch them learn how to play the game and then put those skills to use on the diamond in the games each week.

The members of OTTO Pizza’s Deering Little League AA Girls Softball team gather for a team photo at the beginning of the season.

Coach Brian Carleton did a great job teaching the girls how to hit, how to field and how to make accurate throws, and every game was well-attended by the players’ parents, friends and family.

“We had a great year because we had great kids and all the parents were involved, too,” Coach Brian said. “That makes a big, big difference.”

We’re proud of the girls, not just those who played on the OTTO Pizza team, but of all of ’em who played in the league this year. It was an honor to be able to be a part of it all and we’re looking forward to being involved again next year.

 

A member of the OTTO Pizza AA Girls Softball Team in Portland’s Deering Little League drives a solid hit up the middle as her teammates look on.

What do the Maine High School Basketball State Champs Have in Common with OTTO Pizza?

OTTO Pizza co-owners Mike Keon (L) and Anthony Allen (C) receive kudos from Portland Mayor Michael Brennan Monday evening at City Hall in Portland, Maine.

A lot more than you’d think.

F’rinstance, all of ’em are from Portland. For those of you who somehow didn’t see the news, Portland’s Deering High School boys basketball and McCauley High School girls basketball teams were both the best in the state this year — and OTTO Pizza is arguably the best pizza in the state, if not New England.

And all of ’em were at City Hall in Portland, Maine, on Monday night to receive commendations from the members of the City Council and Portland Mayor Michael Brennan; the members of Portland’s championship teams for their outstanding athletic achievement on the court, and OTTO Pizza for supporting the Portland Recreation Department’s after-school program.

And while we certainly didn’t set out seeking such recognition when we became involved with the Rec Department, it was an honor to receive it, nonetheless.

Thank you.

Anthony & Mike